In Solidarity

In Solidarity rethinks the history of Nigeria’s decolonisation. Moving beyond nationalist leaders, it highlights the struggles of women traders, school children, ex-servicemen, and coal miners whose aspirations were subsumed beneath the politics of anti-colonial nationalism. The book argues that Nigeria’s educated elite used the language of solidarity – amplified by the nationalist press – to consolidate political power during the 1950s, but that independence also marked the eclipse of many of the social and economic demands that had fuelled the anti-colonial movement. By recovering these neglected voices, In Solidarity offers a new understanding of how the elite capture of decolonisation shaped the foundations of the Nigerian postcolonial state.